The reason is that Mick Green played one, and I wanted to be exactly like him. It just have a special sound. What it is: Mick Green played one, so the thing itself became an object of desire. I wanted a Telecaster, and there was one in the local music shop in Southend in the window, it cost £107, way beyond my means, I just used to go and stare at it. Eventually I managed to get it. It's always been the only guitar for me. It's just so simple and basic and it has a really mean sound - I love it.

I don't know that any songs did! That whole period, of when I thought I was going to die, it was one of the most intense years of my life. It gives you a different consciousness, and it's fading from me now like a dream. To try and put myself back there... I don't know about music. I can remember one afternoon, I was at home, and I've got one of these things you put your CDs into and it'll play stuff at random. There's a song, Bob Dylan's If Not For You, which put me in mind of my wife Irene. If I ever heard that song it would bring a tear to my eye. After she died, the song was that much more intense. I was listening to my random thing, and that came on, and I burst into tears, and then another one came on that was really poignant... record after record came on like that. I was just crying, sobbing my heart out, and it felt bloody great.

The operation meant that I'm on daily medication for the rest of my life, and have to remember morning and evening to take a handful of pills. I've become diabetic, so I have to give myself insulin injections and things, and sometimes I need reminding. I have to take this stuff called Creon, because they've taken my pancreas away, in order to digest food. So every time we stop for a meal, the band are like: take the Creon!

Yes I do. Are you really educated if you don't have Latin? I only remember about three words myself... it is nice if you're in a cathedral or something and you can read the inscriptions on tombstones. And understand the derivations of words. It's culture - people should have a bit of culture. We should remember that Shakespeare had "small Latin, and less Greek".

This is my brother. He's the same as ever, we're pretty good brothers. He's very different from me, a very calm guy and a brilliant painter. Malcolm carried on his classical guitar, and his lute, but also his painting - he's superb. A couple of years ago he had a painting exhibited at the Royal Society of Watercolourists exhibition. How is he? He's fine.

When I think of me and Lee, I think of two young people. The first time I met Lee, I was 18 I think, and he was about 14. I remember being absolutely impressed - he had a very vivid personality, he was funny. He had a dynamism about him, and he was always the leader, if you like. I just liked the guy. The last time we were involved together was a long time ago, we were both still pretty young - did that person continue? I don't know. I got the ache with them, with Dr Feelgood. The bustup was pretty acrimonious but I walked away thinking I didn't want to dwell on that - I just wanted to remember this great thing that happened, when it was good. I miss me from then, I miss us all from then - what were we like? It was good.

I did, years ago, have one of my paintings exhibited there at their annual exhibition. The other day I found this unfinished one of my psychedelic landscapes, a circular picture, and there was this photo lying on top of it, quite by chance, of me and my wife Irene walking down this long country path. And it fitted exactly in this trippy landscape, and I did start getting the urge again. Maybe I should try it again. But I don't know if I will.

The farewell tour was very emotional and great, the feeling I was getting from people. And going around going to awards ceremonies, and everyone knowing I was going to die... it's quite a buzz really. And then of course I was snatched from the jaws of death by Mr Huguet, and it was slightly embarrassing. Saying I'm gonna live isn't quite the same as saying I'm gonna die. But sorry, you can't have your money back.

I first got consciously in astronomy when, in 1979 or something, Ian Dury and the Blockheads went to Australia for a tour. We had a long flight and were very jetlagged. It was nighttime in Melbourne, and we got to the hotel, and I went wow! The southern sky! I'm going to look at these stars! I went up to the roof and there was a swimming pool - I got one of those lilo things, lay down, and saw these stars. Wow, there were more than I remembered seeing at home, and they were coloured, and moving about! Then I realised I was looking at fireflies attracted by the pool lights. I realised I didn't know anything about the stars at home, or there. That was my first interest in it.

Anyway, a few years later I was going to go to New Zealand for a tour on my own, and I thought I'd like to repeat this experiment but I'll get a bit of knowledge first. The thing that engaged my interest wasn't the constellations, it was: is the moon upside down in New Zealand? It's tricky. You try working it out. I looked in books and everything. Patrick Moore couldn't tell you. I was stood on my head trying to work it out. So I just had to go there. So I started looking at the moon, and seeing the way round we see it, using binoculars. I get to NZ, and there was no moon, each night. After a few days, I walked off stage and out of the gig, and there was the moon, upside down! I got into the habit of looking through my binoculars, and at Jupiter, you can see it's a disc, it's so exciting, and you can see the moons. This was so thrilling. This was the sight that told Galileo that everything didn't revolve around the earth, and changed our understanding of the universe, and it's so beautiful.

Eventually I started buying proper telescopes, and now I've got a dome on top of my flat roof at home, and a great big telescope. Sit in the dome, man. It's good. Even if it's raining, with the rain beating down, it's great. I had a long break from that when I was ill, I couldn't climb the stepladder onto the roof.

Very much enjoyed the two Julien Temple documentaries, at the end of the second the energy and gusto with with you faced knowing you were going to die seemed to be gone. How much of that was to do with the operation and have you regained that drive again?

Yeah, it took me a long time to recover physically from the operation. Charlie Chan told me it takes three years after an operation like that. I kind of wonder, I'm going to get better for three years, but I'm 68 - could I keep getting better and better until I'm 25 again? I don't know. I do feel very fit, but on the other hand I'm 68 - I'm starting to notice that I'm trotting along. Me and my son had to go to hospital for something or other, I'm trotting along behind him like a kid - we've kind of reversed roles. He looks after me. But I think I'm on it now.

What can I say? Norman is the reason I'm still playing after all this time. The first time I ever saw him was a television show, with Ian Dury playing live on television. I flipped - the next day I was going around saying did you see that bass player? When Ian Dury asked me to join the Blockheads, one of the great attractions was being able to play with Norman, and Charlie the drummer - the rhythm section was great, and I'm a rhythm guitarist. Eventually I got Norman to play with me. I just get such a kick, and it's 1-2-3-4 and it kicks in - it never diminishes. Every time I get a kick. You have to be careful when you go over to that side of the stage that you don't slip over in the lagoon of sweat he creates. The look of how he plays, it's everything. He's so popular with audiences - people love him and so do I.

Do you remember playing Middlesex Polytechnic back in the early 1980s? Fantastic evening! You guys were happy to talk to us and your harmonica player gave me some tips on my (crap) technique. So glad you’re still with us.

'I don't like biscuits. Biscuits are something you end up with in your hotel room at midnight and you're really hungry. You look at them, and think man, I'm hungry, but I can't eat you.'

I don't like biscuits. Biscuits are something you end up with in your hotel room at midnight when you're really hungry and you hate the things. There's no room service, but what you've got is a Digestive. You look at them, and think man, I'm hungry, but I can't eat you.

You tell me! Playing live is it for me, that's the thing. Generally through my career, there's been times I've been playing clubs, and times I've played stadiums, I've just found it good. I don't see the people outside saying, I'm not going in there - I just see the people who like live music.

Back in the Feelgood days Rotosound would send me big boxes of strings, and T-shirts, but they don't do that any more. I don't know what brand I use now! Any old brand, as long as they're the right length. And that D shape is the basic thing that any schoolteacher singing Kumbaya uses.

In fact a whole lot of what I do takes place on the third and fourth strings if we want to look at it like that. When I break strings, it tends to be the fourth - I lean on that quite a bit.